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The paper focuses on two forces (stressors and resources) in the life stress process as they affect psychological distress. Utilizing three waves of panel data from a representative community sample in upstate New York, six causal models of the life stress process are tested with indicators of two types of stressors (social and physiological) and two types of resources (social and psychological). Both deterring and coping models are tested. Analysis shows that: (1) stressors and resources in the social environment have a direct impact on depressive symptoms, (2) social resources mediate the effects of social stressors on psychological distress, and (3) psychological resources indirectly affect distress by enhancing social resources. The critical role played by the social environment in the life stress process involving psychological distress is substantiated. The implications of these and other findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines three related questions: First, can psychiatrists' judgments be successfully predicted by multiple regression techniques? Second, assuming that they can, are such ratings a valid measure of mental health for the same sample at a later point in time? Third, what is the relation between mental health ratings made in 1954 and such subsequently reported behavioral outcomes as nervous break-down, mental hospitalization, or seeking professional help for emotional problems? The evidence presented warrants two conclusions. (1) The computer-derived mental health ratings are an adequate substitute for the original ratings. The regression equation accounts for 69 percent of the variance in those ratings; and the computer-derived ratings behave in the same way as the psychiatrists' ratings in relation to other variables. (2) However, neither the psychiatrists' ratings nor the computer-derived ratings are very accurate in predicting subsequent self-reported behavior indicative of mental impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes stress as derived from minority status and explores its effect on psychological distress in gay men. The concept of minority stress is based on the premise that gay people in a heterosexist society are subjected to chronic stress related to their stigmatization. Minority stressors were conceptualized as: internalized homophobia, which relates to gay men's direction of societal negative attitudes toward the self; stigma, which relates to expectations of rejection and discrimination; and actual experiences of discrimination and violence. The mental health effects of the three minority stressors were tested in a community sample of 741 New York City gay men. The results supported minority stress hypotheses: each of the stressors had a significant independent association with a variety of mental health measures. Odds ratios suggested that men who had high levels of minority stress were twice to three times as likely to suffer also from high levels of distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the widespread popularity enjoyed by labeling theory less than a decade ago, it is now commonly asserted that societal reaction has little etiological impact on future deviance/crime. The present study challenges this view and suggests that an accurate assessment of the perspective awaits the systematic investigation of the various contingencies involved in the labeling process. Using a random sample of Manhattan youths, a longitudinal analysis of the impact of formal intervention on juvenile delinquency/deviance was undertaken in which the relevance of two such contingencies was examined: types of reaction and types of deviance. The data revealed (1) that police and mental health intervention had both independent and interactive effects in increasing juvenile deviance and (2) that the impact of these various modes of reaction differed according to the form of juvenile deviance (delinquency, anxiety, general psychological impairment) being examined. It was thus concluded that it would be premature to discard the labeling perspective as an etiological theory of deviant/criminal behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis, suggested by associations found in previous research, that stressful gife events play a direct etiological role in psychological disorders was investigated. Preexistent methodological problems which permitted no clear inference regarding this role were treated. Competing hypotheses which posited that the life event-psychological disorder associations represented confounded relationships among events, pathology, and sociocultural factors were examined and controlled. Data used were from a survey of mothers of 732 children ranging in age from 11 to 23 years old, who constituted the follow-up sample collected five years later from an original sample of 1,034 children randomly selected from a cross-section of Manhattan households. Event scores differing as to the change and undesirability stress conceptions, each objectively and subjectively defined, were studied. No significant differences were found between correlations of event scores with behavioral pathology prior to and after the events. Multiple regression analyses which added event scores after controlling for stressful life processes demonstrated that events made no minimally meaningful contribution to the prediction of any disturbed behavior. The confounding hypothesis rather than the etiological hypothesis was supported and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An elaboration of the relationship between changes in an area's general hospital bed supply and changes in its hospital utilization rate is performed using path analysis in order to test two opposing interpretations of this relation. One interpretation :sees this relationship as spurious due to the antecedent effect of high demand and consequent unmet need that leads both to increased bed supply and to increased utilization. The opposing interpretation accepts the relationship as causal and sees it operating through the intervening mechanism of changes in the way medicine is practiced in that area. The analysis, using data for New York State counties collected from American Hospital Association statistics, supports the causal rather than the spurious interpretation. The implications of this result for health care delivery are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from a mail-questionnaire study of adults in Alameda County, California, were used to replicate the essentials of Langner's analyses in the second volume of the Midtown Manhattan Study, but employing as a presumptive mental-health measure an eight-item Index of Psychological Well-Being. The results parallel the reported Midtown associations between selected stress factors and mental health as rated by psychiatrists from extensive interview evidence. The concordant findings suggest that both the Midtown psychiatrists' ratings and the Index of Psychological Well-Being may pertain to essentially the same psychological dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the book, "Mental Illness and the Economy," by M.H. Brenner. There are two major confusions or ambiguities in Brenner's work that need to be recognized before the type of reanalysis attempted can be fully useful. The first concerns Brenner's central thesis that his data demonstrate that the relationship of economic conditions to mental hospital admissions is generally negative. Although this thesis is intuitively appealing, the problem is that it is never convincingly demonstrated by Brenner in his book. An examination of the data analysis in the book reveals that because of Brenner's selective inclusion and exclusion of data from different years, it is impossible to determine any clear message regarding the relationship between the economy and mental hospitalization. The second confusion that flaws Brenner's analysis concerns the population actually being studied. The data base used by Brenner has been misinterpreted by many because they have relied on his initial definition of the admission data indicating an inclusion of both public and private admissions. In fact, most of the analysis in his book pertaining to mental hospitalization in New York State, is limited to first admissions to public hospitals.